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Sunday, January 17, 2010

January 17, 2010

Breakfast
My Darling Clementines
serves 1 ~ $1.00 per serving

ingredients

4 clementines ($1.00)

Earthmother was just talking about Clementines the other day on her fab blog, "In the Raw." It's that time of year and most citrus is in season right now. I found a bag of 18 clementines for $4.48 at my local grocery. That's 25 cents each for juicy yumminess ... a real bargain.

So my breakfast today was four luscious clementines. Peel and enjoy ...

I even made a clementine candle like the one Earthmother has linked on her blog.

Tabbouleh is a traditional Lebanese parsley salad. If you like parsley, you'll like tabbouleh. Meh, I don't think I like parsley. It reminds me too much of cilantro (the two are closely related).

Bulgur wheat is usually used in Tabbouleh. I've substituted it here with cauliflower that I chopped in the food processor into rice sized pieces. Sprouted wheat could be used instead, as could sprouted quinoa. The cauliflower gives the same look, but sprouted grains would likely be more flavorful.

This is an easy dish to put together. Mix together the lemon juice, oil, and cumin and toss with the chopped, diced, and minced ingredients. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

This began as a tomato soup. The tomatoes right now are so expensive and so without flavor and color that it was about impossible. So, instead, it became a marinated mushroom soup that turned out to be creamy and savory and really hit the spot on a dreary day.

I started by marinating and then dehydrating the mushrooms and chopped onions. Mix together the olive oil, agave, and balsamic vinegar. Toss with the sliced mushrooms and chopped onions and spread out on a lined dehydrator sheet and dehydrate for about 2-3 hours.

Reserve a few mushrooms and onions for topping. In a blender, puree the remaining mushrooms and onions, avocado, tomato, garlic, and olive oil, adding about 1 1/2 cup water. Add as much water as necessary to make the right consistency. I made mine pretty thick and creamy.

Top with the reserved mushrooms and onions, drizzle with a teaspoon of olive oil.

calories: 374fat: 35 grcarbs: 23 grprotein: 5 gr

For a few cents more ...Bitt, from over at "A Bitt of Raw," once reminded me that crackers are a great way to add in some tasty satisfaction for just a few cents more ... so

I also made some flax and buckwheat crackers to go with the soup. These were really light and crispy, quite a lot like conventional crackers. I think it was the buckwheat that made them so light. It also makes them more difficult to turn on the dehydrator sheet, but they are quite good.

Soak the buckwheat for at least 4 hours. Rinse several times. Do not dehydrate.

In the blender, puree the red bell pepper, carrots, and onion with 1 cup water. Add the buckwheat and blend until the buckwheat is chopped up but not totally pureed. Pour in a bowl and fold in the flax meal and whole flax seeds. Stir in the oil and spices.

Spread this out thinly on lined dehydrator sheets, about 1/8 of an inch thick. Oiling the sheet can make it a bit easier to turn these over. Also, using the back of an oiled spoon will help spread the cracker batter.

Dehydrate for about an hour, or until the top is just getting dry. Flip over and peel the sheet off. I found I had to turn these fairly early or they would get too dry and stick around the edges. But that may just be the kind of dehydrator I'm using.

Last week, I made Kristen's delicious Banana Nut Cookie Dough Bites. I loved that she used dehydrated bananas as the dried fruit part of the recipe. I wanted to see how that could translate into a pie crust. Well, it's just awesome, as i suspected it would be. I also find bananas much more accessible. I don't always have a bag of dates on hand. And bananas are definitely less expensive.

In a food processor with an "S" blade, process the walnuts and dehydrated bananas with a pinch of salt until the mixture starts clumping together. Spread and press onto a plate for a more rustic effect, which is what I did, or use a regular pie or tart plate.

In the food processor, add about a quarter of the strawberries and process with the lemon juice and agave until well pureed. Just like chocolate needs a dash of salt, I've found that strawberries really benefit from a tiny bit of lemon.

To make the walnut cream, in a blender puree 1/4 cup walnuts, 3 dates, and enough water to process, about 2/3 cup. Puree until very smooth and creamy.

Slice the remaining strawberries and add arrange on top. Spoon on some of the walnut cream. Cut into wedges and serve.

Wow- this soup and pie.. Man, this tuff just looks amazing!! I really want to make this pie.. But I'm a sucker for fruit. What a wonderful idea to used dried bananas instead of dates- Definitely cheaper- and the most natural combo with Strawberries!

Bravo! Beautiful blog... I do tire of hearing that raw "sounds so expensive". It only seems to get expensive as we try to recreate those old cooked favorites all the time. Thank you for today's inspiration to stay out of the box!

anon, no, i don't specifically use organic produce for the purposes of this blog (some things are organic, some not) ... i live in a rural area in the midwest and shop at the one grocery in town ... i stay on the good side of the produce mananager, who is more than happy to say when things will be on sale ... so, i get "overripe" bananas for 30 cents a lb, for example, or greens or tomatoes for a bit less than the regular price ... yes, if i shopped at something like a whole foods or insisted on all organic all the time, it would be more expensive ...